Names & Faces Photobook

I'm so excited to share this post with you, because I just know you're all going to love this product!  A couple months ago I saw a pin for something called "The Big Book of Names and Faces" from Pinhole Press.  I absolutely fell in love with the idea of doing a photo book for Mac with pictures of his family members and favorite people/pets.  He loves looking at the photographs on the walls at our house and pointing to Mama and Dada, so I figured this would be the perfect way to keep him familiar with out of town family members.  Done and done.

I checked out Pinhole Press's website and found the book was $49.99.  I'm all for splurging on my kid, but I thought that was a little high for a baby book that Mac was probably going to destroy.  So I looked around for an alternative company that could do a similar book with spiral binding and big thick pages cheaper.  I found nothing.  Nada.  Zip.

So despite some minor hesitation, I went with it.  And boy am I so glad I did!  

I am madly in love with this book!

The cover is gorgeous!  

The photo is big and beautifully printed.  

It's thick and durable and has red cloth on the side and back (they have 4 different colors to choose from).  

The binding is strong and well put together.

The pages are REALLY thick, which makes it worth the extra price.  It's like a board book!  Perfect for babies and little kids that could easily tear out pages of a regular photobook.

The photos in the book are excellent.  

They're big and bright and fun.  

The names are perfectly centered and big and easy to read.  

The colors and fun and bright.

Mac loves looking through the book; he waves at everyone and gives them all kisses!  It's the most adorable thing you've ever seen.  He laughs and squeals in delight at the pictures.

The photo of Jigs is his favorite.  

It's just a beautiful book.  

I love it.  Mac loves it.  

I've even caught my husband flipping through it and smiling at the photos.

Totally worth it.

Pros:

• No software to download to your computer. You make the book online and can save projects and return to them later from any computer. 
• Easy to make (took me less than 20 minutes once I'd picked out which photos to use)
• Extra thick durable pages for tiny hands that like to rip things
• Hard, thick, drool-proof and durable cover
• Pages lay flat and turn easily for little ones
• Beautifully printed photographs - excellent quality
• Quick turnaround - I received the book less than a week from placing the order

Cons:

• No ability to swap pages or change the colors on the page
• No ability to change font or font size
• No ability to change the color of the text on the front of the book (white only)
• No ability to add more (or have fewer) pages
• Slightly more expensive than other photobooks ($49.99)

Overall, the pros WAY outweigh the cons.  I love the book.  I'm obsessed.  So what if I couldn't change the font?  I think sometimes not having the ability to tweak every little thing a thousand different ways is a good thing.  It only took me 15 minutes to make the book and order it.  If I had endless options of fonts and colors and layouts, I'd probably still be working on it.  

The only other drawback (which was my initial hesitation) was the price of the book.  Now that I've seen the book and the excellent quality of it, I think it's totally worth the pricetag, but I know not everyone is going to be convinced until you get one of your own...

SO, the good folks over at Pinhole Press would like to offer you a discount on all photo books RIGHT NOW.  25% off through April 26th!  Just use the code: RLMD13

I hope you all go make one right now.  Your babies will love it!

* I was not compensated in any way for this review.  I purchased the book with my own hard-earned dollars and cents.  After I received the book (and fell madly in love with it), I contacted Pinhole Press to see if they'd offer readers a discount and they were kind enough to help a mama out.  Lucky you!  I've never reached out to a company before, so you know that I'm seriously crazy about this book.  I want you all to order one because your kiddos will love it!

** However, I sure wouldn't be opposed to being compensated (in photobooks) for this review.  Wink wink.  So Pinhole Press, if you're feeling generous, I have a lot of photos looking for a home. ;-)

Go!  Now!  Make a book!  

What are you still doing here??





Pinhole Press - 25% off all photo books through April 26th - use the discount code RLMD13

Taking a Stroll

Now that the weather is finally starting to get nice, it's been so much fun taking Mac outside to play.  He's about this close to walking on his own!  I can't even get over it.  These photos were taken a few weeks ago (a couple days before we got 12+ inches of snow!), so he's not getting around nearly as well as he does now, but this is pretty cute nonetheless.  I can't believe the improvement he's made in just a few short weeks with both walking and steering his walker.  I'm confident that he'll be walking (or running) on his own by his first birthday.  This little VTech walker has been his favorite toy for months now!  He has really gotten a lot of use out of this thing.  He pushes it all around the house, uses it to chase (or run over) the dogs and loves ramming it into our walls.  When we finally had a nice day, we were so excited to take him outside and let him walk on our street/sidewalk where he could just go go go without running into anything.  

And he's off! 

Look at that concentration.

I'm coming for you, mom.

This is awesome!

Our dogs were at the front door watching, so Mac had to stop and wave to them.

Adorable.

Hi puppies!

Guess what...I'm outside!

Love the butt shot.

Is this not the cutest thing ever?  

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.  ~Henry David Thoreau

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

First of all, THANK YOU all so much for all your comments last week about Mac's sleeping.  It was so nice to hear from both so many first time commenters and veteran moms.  I'm so blessed to have the smartest mamas out there as readers!  Y'all rock.  

Secondly, I really hope that post didn't come off as whiny or complaining.  As you all know, it took us a LONG time to have a baby and I don't want to take one second of it for granted.  I know there are millions of women out there that would give anything to be in my sleepless situation because it means they have a baby to love.  I never want to make it sound like I'm ungrateful for my baby or complaining.  I know sleepless nights come with the territory of being a mom and I spent years praying for those nights.  I definitely don't want to give the impression that I've forgotten about that or am unappreciative.  

Since last week's post, a lot of you have asked how things are going, so I thought I'd give you a little update.  Here's the deets on what we've done/changed in the last week.  

We've added a morning nap to Mac's schedule.  He does not want the nap at all if he's home and playing, but we've found that if we put him in the car and drive around for a while, he falls asleep.  So that's what we've done.  He's had a 15-45 minute morning nap every day for the past week and while I'm not sure it's helped with night-time waking, I definitely think it's improved his mood in the afternoons.  He's not nearly as tired and clingy in the evenings any more (or maybe that's because he's finally not sick). Either way, we're going to try to keep this up.  It may not happen every day, but it's a good start and good to know that he needs more daytime sleep.  I had no idea he was so young to drop a nap - thanks for the comments on that. 

We've been giving him a lovely to hold during his night-time routine.  He has absolutely no interest in it and doesn't even want to hold it.  Basically I hold it in front of him and kiss it, love on it and talk to it and he looks at me like I'm batshit crazy.  I put it in his crib with him, but he's never once even acknowledged it's existence in there.  Not sure if this one's going to catch on anytime soon, but we'll keep it up. It definitely can't hurt anything.

I've been putting him down to sleep at night awake.  This is HARD.  I still rock him and sing to him and give him his nightly bottle while snuggling and cuddling, but I've been cutting our routine a little bit short and putting him down before he's passed out.  He's definitely tired and oh-so-close to falling asleep when I put him in his crib, but as soon as he touches the mattress, he's wide awake and pissed off!  The first night he cried for about 20 minutes and then laid down and went to sleep.  The second night he just kind of whimpered and whined for about 12 minutes and then went down.  The third night was around 20 minutes again.  The fourth night was an hour of full blown screaming bloody murder and I had to go in and calm him down.  Ugh.  Regression.  The fifth night was 45 minutes of major screaming.  And last night we were back to only 12 minutes of whimpering.  I don't have a clue if he's getting any better at self-soothing.  

When he wakes in the middle of the night, we've been trying not to give him a bottle.  Every now and then we do, but only when he's inconsolable and needs it to calm himself down.  I think he's having bad dreams because he's had a few wake-ups where he's just freaking out and still crying in his sleep while in our arms.  A lot of you commented that he could be having dreams of falling from just starting to walk, which makes a lot of sense, so we try comfort him as much as we can in this case.  The bottle's our last resort, but sometimes necessary.  He usually only takes an ounce or two, so I know he's not really hungry and doesn't need it.  Otherwise, we've tried to eliminate the nighttime feedings.  

We've also been trying to put him back in his crib awake if he wakes in the middle of the night.  Also very hard to do.  Mainly because it's the MIDDLE OF THE FREAKING NIGHT and we just want to go back to bed.  The first time I did this, he cried for about 30 seconds and then fell asleep!  WOW.  I thought I'd won the mommy lottery!  But then I did it again on Monday night and he cried for 45 minutes before finally laying back down and falling asleep on his own.  There is nothing worse than lying in bed wide awake at 3:00 a.m. on a Monday night listening to your child scream his head off knowing that you have to go to work in a couple hours.  Ugh.  

So, has his sleep improved?  Maybe.  The first two nights on the new system he slept through the WHOLE night without ANY wake-ups.  I'm talking 11-12 straight hours of sleep.  OMG, it was the greatest thing EVER.  I was convinced that I'd solved the world's baby sleeping problems and was daydreaming of writing a best-selling book on sleep and making bajillions of dollars.  Then he starting waking up in the middle of the night again and has ever since.  So we had 2 awesome nights, 2 crappy nights with one wake-up, and 2 miserable nights with 2 (or more) wake-ups and lots of crying.  

So, basically we're back to where we started.  We're going to keep the new routine up a while longer, just to see if it starts to sink in.  Maybe our kid's just thick-headed and stubborn (like me) and needs a little longer to adjust. Who knows.  If not, I'm very happy (and excited) to go back to our routine of rocking him to sleep every night with a bottle and a lullaby.  I'll keep you all updated.  And in the meantime, I'm going to try to really appreciate those middle of the night cuddle sessions because I know they won't last forever.  And if it turns out he really does need me to go to college with him and rock him to sleep every night, I'll happily go!  I loved college, after all.  :)

Sleep Battle Royale

There is a serious battle going on in my house right now over SLEEP.  Wonderful, refreshing, elusive sleep.  I love sleep.  Ryan loves sleep.  Mally, Sage and Jigs love sleep.  Mac HATES sleep.  See the problem?

I'm not saying that we are at the mercy of the baby all the time, but WE ARE AT THE MERCY OF THE BABY ALL THE TIME!  And when he doesn't want to sleep, none of us sleep.  Well, the cat sleeps, but that's it.

This all started about a month ago, I think.  But let's back-up so you get the whole picture.  When Mac was around 6 months old (November), we did a modified form of sleep training, where we put him to bed, gave him a dream feed bottle around 11:00 p.m. (maybe change his diaper) and then if he woke up again, we'd let him cry it out until he went back to sleep, and usually he'd sleep until around 7:30 a.m.  We let him cry it out a couple times (not more than half an hour) for about four nights in a row before he figured it out, but did well after that.  And this worked for quite a while.  Not perfectly, but pretty well.  

Then sometime around late January/early February we tried eliminating the dream feed bottle and we had a few nights where he slept through the night.   All night - 12 straight hours - no bottle.  Sometimes he'd wake up briefly but then go back to sleep pretty easily. It was wonderful.

Then, towards the end of February we all got sick again (and again and again).  We've battled two rounds of the stomach flu, strep throat and ear infections.  Needless to say, this royally effed up everything.  Night-time wake-ups were frequent and involved some combination of bottles, puking, diarrhea, outfit/diaper/bedding changes, snot sucking, Tylenol dosing or all of the above.  This threw everything off.  He was sick, so letting him cry it out wasn't an option.  We were responsive to every cry.  We held him and let him sleep in our arms.  We rocked him to sleep.  We sang, we bounced, we coddled.  We thought we were being good, loving, caring parents.  Apparently not...we created a monster.

We're now over the stomach flu and back to feeling better, but the wake-ups continue.  We've tried going back to the original 11:00 dream feed schedule, but that doesn't work.  Either he wakes completely up at 11 and wants to hang out for hours or he still wakes up two or three times a night and we get even less sleep than before because we've stayed up until 11 to do the dream feed.

The last two nights he's gone to bed easily at his normal bedtime, then woken up once (where we give him a bottle because he's been sick and we thought he was hungry and needed the calories), and then had one more wake-up an hour or so later, where he screams bloody murder until someone picks him up and he falls back asleep in our arms.  And then last night he went to bed easily at 7:30 p.m., then woke up at 9:30 p.m. and was up on and off until 3:30 a.m.  THAT'S SIX FUCKING HOURS!  Not cool.  He'd fall asleep in our arms then wake up as soon as we put him in the crib.  Repeatedly.  We even let him cry it out for a while, which just made him more awake and more pissed off.  Fail.  Can I just say right now that he's VERY lucky he's so cute.

So, dear readers, friends, family...I'm here begging for your advice.  What in the hell is going on with this child and how do I fix it?  Is this normal for a 10.5 month old?  Is it a growth spurt?  Is it teething?  Is he still sick?  Is is just sleep regression?  Or separation anxiety?  Have I completely ruined my kid already?  

Here are a few more details (because I know you'll want to know):

- Our bedtime routine bath, bottle, bed - at the same time every night.  Yes, he falls asleep in my arms when I'm feeding him and I put him in his crib asleep with white noise.  I've read the books - I know that's not ideal, I know I should put him down awake, I KNOW!  But here's the thing, I love rocking him to sleep.  It's the highlight of my day. I miss him so much all day long and I cherish that half hour when I get to hold his little warm body next to me, snuggle him, smell him, kiss his head, sing to him.  I love rocking him to sleep.  I love bedtime.  I don't want to give that up.  Is that selfish?  Does that make me a horrible parent?  (please say no)

- Crying it out does not work any more.  This kid is persistent.  He will stand in his crib, stare at the door and scream bloody murder at the top of his lungs for hours.  Or scream so hard he throws up.  I am not kidding.  Crying it out is torture for all of us.  We can't handle it.  (I can't handle it, I'm such a softie.)  He seems to have no self-soothing ability any more.  What happened to it?  Iis there any other way to get him to develop this now without doing cry it out?  

- We already do white noise all night long. He does not take (and has never been interested in) a pacifier.  He does not care for stuffed animals or lovelies.  He takes one 2 hour afternoon nap every day.  

- I don't think he's waking up because he's hungry.  He eats well during the day: has three solid meals, snacks and a couple bottles.  We've been giving him a bottle at night mainly because it calms him down and helps him get back to sleep so we can get back to sleep.  He doesn't finish it and probably doesn't need it.    I'm fine cutting out this bottle or keeping it.  I just don't know.

- In the last couple weeks he's been particularly clingy and whiny in the evenings.  He acts fine and plays all day, but when I get home from work, he doesn't want to play or do anything other than be held/carried by me.  I thought this was because he wasn't feeling well, but it's continued.  He just wants to be held, which I don't want to deny him after being at work all day, but I wonder if he's not sleeping at night because he's not wearing himself out in the evenings like he used to.  He cries if I put him down for just a minute, so I usually just hold him and talk to him and we walk around the house and spend time together.  Sometimes we go for walks (with him in the stroller) or to the grocery store (with him in the cart), which are both visually stimulating and keeps him entertained, but definitely doesn't wear him out.  I'm not sure what's going on with this behavior. 

So...advice?  Suggestions?  ANYTHING?  I'm not asking for a miracle...I don't expect him to sleep 12 straight hours every single night.  One wake up would be fine.  How do we even get back to that?  I love this kid to death and will wake up and rock him for hours upon hours every night until he goes to college, but I know that's not the answer.  I know I'm probably not doing him any favors by soothing him at night (with rocking or a bottle), but what else can I do?  Why does loving and spoiling my kid make me feel like I'm a horrible parent?  Ugh.  I just want to make him happy.  And make him sleep.  And get some damn sleep myself.  

P.S.  You don't even have to leave advice...feel free to just leave a comment commiserating saying, "Dude, that sucks, I feel your pain.  My kid doesn't sleep either."  Because really, as parents, don't we all just want to know that we're not alone in this and our kids will eventually turn out ok despite our screw-ups?


P.S.2  Please don't be hateful and leave rude "Anonymous" comments.  That doesn't help and they will be deleted.  Don't be a hater...ain't nobody got time for that.

Highlights from our Easter Weekend

1. That asshole Easter bunny brought Mac the stomach flu
2. We did 183 loads of laundry this weekend because of said stomach flu
3. The dogs acted like complete hooligans because they were cooped up all weekend (Sage ate a board book and half of Old MacDonald’s farm animals, while Mally set a world record for most obnoxious and continuous barking)
4. The cat hates us all and escaped three times on Saturday
5. The dogs wouldn't smile (or even open their eyes) for Easter photos without cheese, which we didn’t have
6. The only thing that would make Mac happy was singing “The Wheels on the Bus” over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over
7. Grocery stores were closed yesterday so we couldn't buy vodka
8. Florida lost, so my bracket is screwed (which means I’m on diaper changing duty for the next two weeks)
9. I’m pretty sure I've got baby poop on me somewhere today because I can smell it
10. Hope you had a better Easter than we did (we’re having rabbit stew for dinner tonight)